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"This becomes a strong disincentive for the construction and operation of these plants that are vital for steady, dependable electricity supply." They are only
by lotsofmangos 12y ago
"This becomes a strong disincentive for the construction and operation of these plants that are vital for steady, dependable electricity supply."
They are only vital if there is not enough storage.
If it is a disincentive to build new base-load generation due to the change in the market, doesn't that mean that the money is going to funnel more into storage, given there is unlikely to be a reduction in overall energy investment?
Also, storage is a buy low sell high business that depends on owning suitable real estate, which makes it look pretty attractive in markets where the price sometimes goes negative. Anyone with a big flow battery, or even a decent hill with a bit of railway up it, could have done quite well there.
- tanzam75 12y agoStorage is very tough to work out. You pay for all this capacity, but you only get to make money a couple of times a day. Dam a river and you can generate power 24 hours a day. Build a pumped-storage facility, and you'll be lucky to get a half-hour out of it. You really need a wide spread between baseload and peak prices to make it work out. Ironically, renewables are destroying the economics of pumped storage in Germany. On sunny days, solar panels displace much of the peak load from pumped storage. On rainy days, the pumped storage suddenly becomes crucial to the grid. Except that pumped storage cannot make money by operating only on rainy days.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoPresumably it can make money be operating every night though, which is where it would end up if solar expands to the level where it replaces conventional generation.